Department for International Trade

Prime Minister's Trade Envoy Programme

Greg Hands: The Prime Minister has made a new appointment to his Trade Envoy programme. This new appointment will extend the total number of Trade Envoys to 30 parliamentarians covering 69 markets. The Prime Minister’s trade envoy programme is an unpaid and voluntary cross-party network, which supports the UK’s ambitious trade and investment agenda in global markets. Laurence Robertson MP for Tewkesbury has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Angola and Zambia.

Department of Health and Social Care

Vaccine Update

Matt Hancock: I am tabling this statement for the benefit of Honourable and Right Honourable members to bring to their attention the contingent liabilities relating to the contract signed between Her Majesty’s Government (hereafter HMG) and AstraZeneca/Oxford for their COVID-19 vaccine.On 29 December, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) gave their authorisation for use of the COVID-19 vaccine being manufactured by AstraZeneca/Oxford. With deployment of this vaccine beginning next week I am now updating the House on the liabilities HMG has taken on in relation to this vaccine via this statement and attached Departmental Minute.The agreement to provide an indemnity as part of the contract between HMG and AstraZeneca/Oxford creates a contingent liability on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, and I will be laying a Departmental Minute today containing a description of the liability undertaken.It has been and is the Government’s strategy to manage COVID-19 until an effective vaccine/s can be deployed at scale. Willingness to accept appropriate indemnities has helped to secure access to vaccines with the expected benefits to public health and the economy alike much sooner than may have been the case otherwise.Given the exceptional circumstances we are in, and the terms on which developers are willing to supply a COVID-19 vaccine, we have had to take a broader approach to indemnification than we usually would. Global approaches differ, but we are aware that many other nation states are offering indemnities as part of their contractual arrangements, or other means e.g. the US PREP Act, which provides immunity from liability to vaccine developers.Even though the COVID-19 vaccines have been developed at pace, at no point and at no stage of development has safety been bypassed. The independent MHRA’s approval for use of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine clearly demonstrates that this vaccine has satisfied, in full, all the necessary requirements for safety, effectiveness, and quality. We are providing indemnities in the very unexpected event of any adverse reactions that could not have been foreseen through the robust checks and procedures that have been put in place.Developing a vaccination against COVID-19 has been an extraordinary feat which has been delivered at great pace. Given the pace of vaccine development and our ambition to deploy the vaccine as soon as it has been authorised, it has not been possible to provide you with normal 14 sitting days to consider this issue of contingent liabilities.I will update the House in a similar manner as and when other COVID-19 vaccines are deployed. Departmental Minute (docx, 22.9KB)

Treasury

Economy Update

Rishi Sunak: Following my announcement yesterday that the government is providing £4.6 billion of UK-wide funding to support hardest hit businesses, I am pleased to share further details regarding these grants.Throughout this crisis, our economic priority remains the same: to protect jobs. We have already set out our economic package of support for businesses over the Winter, including: monthly grants for closed businesses worth up to £3,000 per month; 100% business rates relief for all eligible retail, hospitality and leisure premises in 2020/21; extending the furlough scheme to April; extending the 100% government-backed COVID-19 lending schemes to March; and providing further SEISS grants to support the self-employed to April.But given further national restrictions announced by the Prime Minister on Monday that will prevent further spread of the virus, the government will provide additional support to the most affected businesses, worth £4.6 billion across the United Kingdom.All business premises in England which are legally required to close, including Retail, Hospitality and Leisure, can claim a new one-off grant of up to £9,000. The one-off additional grant each business premises will receive depends on their rateable value.Businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or over will receive grants of £9,000Businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000 will receive grants of £6,000Businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under will receive grants of £4,000This one-off grant is in addition to the existing monthly closed grants of up to £3,000 per month that businesses continue to be eligible for. These grants are worth over £1 billion in total per month.We expect over 600,000 business premises in England to benefit from these grants. Businesses can receive multiple grants, as they are eligible on a per premises basis. Local authorities will receive the funding for the one-off grants next week, and we encourage them to make payments to businesses as soon as possible.In addition to these one-off grants, we are making available discretionary funds of £500m to local authorities in England to enable them to support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding (worth £20 per head of population) which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies and help businesses impacted.This announcement also includes £729 million of funding for the devolved administrations as part of the unprecedented upfront funding guarantee. The total of the guarantee is reviewed regularly to ensure it reflects all additional funding and was most recently increased by £800 million to £16.8 billion on 24 December. The Government is likely to increase this shortly to take into account any further expected increases in support in England.This support will help businesses get through this difficult period through to the Spring. We will take further decisions about our economic response to coronavirus and how best to support the economy, businesses and jobs at the Budget on the 3rd March.